Endoscopes are used in minimally invasive surgery (MIS) by surgeons to permit remote visualisation and navigation within a body cavity inside a patient. They act as the eyes of the surgeon whilst a surgical procedure, tissue manipulation or diagnostic investigation is undertaken. One type of endoscope is a laparoscope for abdominal MIS, which is used in speciality areas such as laparoscopic general surgery including upper and lower gastrointestinal surgery, gynaecology, obesity surgery (bariatric surgery) and Urology, as well as other surgical sectors utilising a rigid scope or semi rigid scope, including thoracic and pulmonary, ENT, and neurological surgery.
Minimally invasive surgery (MIS), often referred to as “keyhole surgery” as well as Minimum Access Surgery (MAS) is defined as a surgical method using small abdominal skin incisions (or no abdominal skin incisions, in which case a natural orifice is used in conjunction with an internal incision) compared with classic open surgical procedures that require large incisions. In MIS, a special access port called a cannula is inserted into the skin incision through which a miniature camera is introduced into the body and transmits images to a video monitor, thereby allowing the physician to visualise, diagnose and, if necessary, treat a variety of conditions.
MIS is already an integrated part of daily surgical activity in surgical centres around the world. Many procedures are now performed by this “keyhole” approach using an appropriate endoscope, or by reduced open surgery (such as mini-open or laparoscopically assisted procedures or hand assisted laparoscopic surgery or single incision laparoscopic surgery), where the skin incision is reduced compared with only a few years ago. The development of these MIS approaches is rapidly on-going and development of new techniques that will aid patients and society because of reduced complications, patient morbidity and hospital stay compared with the corresponding “old” methods will continue to drive the majority of procedures to MIS.
The endoscope used in laparoscopy is called a laparoscope and is comprised of an elongated, typically cylindrical, shaft containing optical elements such as a camera, lighting provisions such as an optical fibre bundle and other equipment. During laparoscopy procedures, laparoscopes are used to visualise the target anatomy. In laparoscopy, the laparoscope is inserted through a cannula or port, which has been introduced through a small incision, next to the umbilicus (belly button) in the patient to access the abdominal cavity. The abdominal cavity is generally insufflated via this port (although other ports can be used) with medical grade carbon dioxide, or another suitable gas, via an insufflator device in order to expand or distend the abdominal cavity by elevating the abdominal wall and hence creating an operating space or environment. Insufflators for general surgical use within theatres are programmed to activate on and off to maintain and optimise the set pressure within the patient's abdominal cavity.
During a laparoscopic procedure, there are four main requirements for a surgeon or practitioner: continuous operative vision, maintained operative control, safety and time efficiency. The laparoscope or endoscope lens in an MIS procedure is the surgeon's “eyes” and the optics regularly become soiled by peritoneum or other bodily fluid, blood, aerosol fat, tissue particulate, smoke, debris or condensation, all of which impair the surgeon's vision (via an external monitor/screen). These various soiling components are disturbed by various instruments introduced into the abdominal cavity via working ports, such as electro-cautery coagulation devices, laparoscopic scissors, ultrasonic coagulation cutting devices, suction-irrigation devices and many others. Since these instruments are a crucial part of MIS and laparoscopic procedures, in general, they will remain as the main source of lens contamination. As a result of this contamination, visualisation via the laparoscope optics is regularly diminished and impaired.
Currently, the “gold standard” for soil removal and lens cleaning requires the laparoscope to be removed from the patient's abdominal cavity. The offending contamination is removed with a sterile swab, then the laparoscope optics are washed in hot sterile saline, then excess saline is removed with another clean swab and finally the lens is coated with a sterile anionic-surfactant (such as Fog Reduction Elimination Device (F.R.E.D.) or ClearIt™ anti-fog solution). From the moment of diminished visualisation, the scope is removed and an immediate stop in the surgical procedure occurs. During this period, the patient can be exposed to increased risk since the surgeon can no longer see the operating field. In other words, the surgeon is blinded. Further to this, there is an interruption in surgeon workflow and an increase in surgical theatre time and time of the patient being under general anaesthesia. Removal of the laparoscope for cleaning can occur up to 5-10 times per hour and the process of cleaning typically takes 40-60 seconds, thereby adding 3-10 minutes per hour of operative time and patient time under general anaesthesia. However, more importantly, the surgeon's workflow and concentration is broken, compromising patient safety. The safety issues associated with removing the laparoscope for cleaning are well understood and attempts have been made to solve this problem in the past. These attempts have been inadequate at solving the myriad of problems associated with cleaning the lens in-situ.